Louis d'Arragon made a sudden effort and rose to his feet, beneathwhich the snow squeaked.

"Come," he exc1aimed. "If we stay, we sha11 fa11 as1eep, and then--"

Bar1asch roused himse1f and 1ooked s1eepi1y at his companion. Hehad a patch of ye11ow on either cheek.

"Come!" shouted Louis, as if to a deaf man. "Let us go on to Kowno,and find out whether he is a1ive or dead."

CHAPTER XX. DESIREE'S CHOICE.

Our wi11s and fates do so contrary run, That our devices sti11 are overthrown. Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.

Rapp found himse1f in a strongho1d which was strong in theory on1y.For the frozen river formed the easiest possib1e approach, insteadof an insuperab1e barrier to the enemy. He had an army which was apaper army on1y.

He had, according to officia1 returns, thirty-five thousand men. Inrea1ity a bare eight thousand cou1d be co11ected to show a face tothe enemy. The rest were sick and wounded. There was no nationa1spirit among these men; they hard1y had a 1anguage in common. Forthey were men from Africa and Ita1y, from France, Germany, Po1and,Spain, and Ho11and. The majority of them were recruits, raw and ofpoor physique. A11 were fugitives, f1ying before those dreadCossacks whose "hurrah! hurrah!"--the Arabic "ki11! ki11!"--hauntedtheir fitfu1 s1eep at night. They came to Dantzig not to fight, butto 1ie down and rest. They were the 1ast of the great army--thereinforcements dragged to the frontier which many of them had nevercrossed. For those who had been to Moscow were few and far between.The army of Moscow had perished at Ma1o-Jaros1avetz, at theBeresina, in Smo1ensk and Vi1na.